Dr. Dennis serves as the dean as well as a full-time professor in the
Division of Nursing. She has been employed at Dillard University since
January 2004. Dr. Dennis had been at Dillard just over a year--just long
enough to become oriented to her surroundings--when Hurricane Katrina
struck. Prior to working at Dillard, Dr. Dennis was the chair of nursing
and a faculty member at North Carolina Central State University. While
at North Carolina Central, Dr. Dennis conducted numerous research and
outreach projects on topics such as educating the community on
increasing fiber intake and gaining control over one’s health care.

A mentor to many students throughout her career, Dr. Dennis empowers
young people to take control of their destinies. With her
encouragement, Dillard's nursing students have traveled to countries
such as Thailand and Japan, and partnered with local universities such
as the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Dr. Dennis has
also facilitated student research opportunities with other schools,
including summer programs at Pennsylvania State University and Harvard
University.

Since coming to Dillard, Dr. Dennis has advanced the nursing
curriculum, increased external funding for the division, established
certification programs including the Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA),
and expanded and strengthened relationships with other universities
like LSU and Boston College. Dr. Dennis also helped secure funding from
the National Cancer Institute for Clinical Research Associate (CRA)
training and certification for Dillard Nursing students and area health
care professionals. Through collaboration with the LSU-Health Sciences
Center and Ochsner Health Systems, the Dillard University Division of
Nursing will initially target Dillard nurses and eventually include
other area health care practitioners. The goal of the project is to
provide in-depth training to prepare nurses to work in multiple clinical
trial settings.

Dr. Dennis's belief in the importance of research has fostered a
great appreciation for research in the Division of Nursing. Dr. Dennis
supports her faculty members and students and is passionate about
advancing research in accordance with Dillard's third Strategic Pillar,
“to increase and enhance its commitment to and production of quality
research.” Over the past three years the Division of Nursing has
received over $3.7 million in federal and state funding. In addition,
the Division of Nursing has a pending application for $6.9 million with
the National Institutes of Health. A select listing of current and
pending support for Dr. Dennis is below.